Europe treats undocumented children with less care than livestock | Michele Levoy

Countless young people are being pushed to Europe’s margins by hardline border and migration policies

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We don’t know how many undocumented children are living in Europe. We don’t even know how many children are currently locked up in detention because of their own or their parents’ immigration status. While the European Union requires precise data collection in numerous sectors – we know how many dairy cows there are in the EU and the UK, for example – the lack of data and visibility of undocumented children seems a political, rather than a technical, void.

Being born in Europe is not enough to prevent a child from becoming undocumented, if they are born to undocumented parents. No European country grants citizenship solely based on birth in the national territory. Others in the ranks of the undocumented moved to Europe as kids and have spent most of their lives here. For them, Europe is home. But policy hasn’t caught up with this reality.

Many young people live in constant fear that one day their lives and families will be torn apart

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Michele LeVoy is director of PICUM, the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/30FLV1v